This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Mintz: Serving scallops to a Port Lands expert

Why did I combine pumpkin with scallop, pork, coriander and cabbage? An expert told me to.

On my shelves are books devoted entirely to ingredients that go well together. Popular combinations — that meat goes well with potatoes — we understand through experience. We have tried it and liked it. Pork and cabbage are famously matched in choucroute. Coriander is often a hidden element in cured meats.

And it's easy to imagine pumpkin's connection to pork at Thanksgiving, when the bacon with Brussels sprouts make friends with the sweet potatoes on your plate.

But scallops? That connection I accepted academically, as opposed to the growing wave of political flavour, capitalizing on a spirit of anti-intellectualism, that proposes we not believe what experts tell us.

The recent flap over Toronto's Port Lands illustrates how easy it can be for a handful of politicians, speaking fervently, to undo the work of respected agencies and every layer of government. It is proof that passion and whim can overtake science and reason.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

When I saw Mark Reid, a partner and planner for Urban Strategies, explain at a meeting of the Kensington Market BIA the process of conducting a heritage conservation district study, I was struck by his allegiance to facts, while board members tried to mask their self-interest in a façade of community.

Some business owners spoke nostalgically of cultural history. Yes, there were once dozens of butchers and grocers in the market. But they will not be returning. One merchant made it clear that his interest in the study, which could cost $100,000, was to prevent one specific property from being developed into a supermarket, which would compete with his supermarket. Many talked about what “we need” when what they meant was “I want.”

It's painful to watch a group of people with a common goal — they all want their mixed residential and commercial neighbourhood to get better and not worse — be unable to reconcile their common interests.

At my home, over dinner, without the shouting and grandstanding, I can better understand what Reid means.

“I'm a firm believer that you can't stop change,” he says while I sear Hokkaido scallops, “that you should get in front of it and plan for it. If we don't, the development community will.”

His greying hair peaks in the sort of wave that makes bald men wish they'd done more with their locks when they had them.

“A Heritage Conservation District contains the strongest policies that are the least able to be overturned at the Ontario Municipal Board,” he explains.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

That means it is essential to identify architectural typologies, codifying what makes a neighbourhood unique. Scheduling regular public consultations at key milestones through the process is the way to avoid the type of overregulation that dictates what colour people can paint their houses.

“The way we typically do it, we work closely with the community leaders and the councillor.”

He lists Ottawa's ByWard Market as an example of smart planning. There are older three-storey buildings joined by newer five-storey buildings. The city's Sparks Street Mall is his evidence of the opposite.

“It was healthy before they made it into pedestrian only. You can't drop people off, you don't have parking in front of the shops.”

What makes Kensington successful is also what confounds attempts at modernization.

“It really breaks all the rules, for planners,” he says, noting non-insulated porches used as commercial space, structures built without permits, food merchandise on sidewalk obstructing pedestrian traffic.

“It's evolved without all those controls. And that's one of the things that makes it great.”

For the same reasons, my eggplant parmesan, topped on a whim with smoked brisket, is functional but a failure. The seven storeys of eggplant taste good, but they don't actually complement their penthouse of crispy beef. The heat of the brisket distracts from the eggplant. The tomato sauce drowns out the meat's mix of spices.

Often I'll test out new ideas in advance of dinner. The combination of scallop, pork, pumpkin, cabbage and coriander is a departure, assembled at the last minute and tasted for the first time at the table. The sweet scallop is balanced by the pumpkin's earthiness, which is levelled out by the fatty pork and acidic cabbage; coriander and cinnamon link them like a corsage.

Maybe the authors of my book on popular combinations, with their education and experience, know something. Maybe it's worth listening to a third party, even if they're trying to sell us something.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com